Russia

MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/: The construction of the Serbian section of the TurkStream pipeline is proceeding according to the schedule and will be completed according to the plan by the end of this year, First Deputy Head of the Russian Government Office Sergey Prikhodko told reporters ahead of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's official visit to Serbia.

MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/: Russia is ready to develop relations with all Balkan states if they demonstrate political will to do so, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with Serbia's "Evening News" newspaper ahead of the official visit.

"Of course we follow all sorts of signals. Russia is obliged to follow the signals from different countries. You have said it accurately - at some point, the contacts have become complicated. But we are ready for the development of relations," Medvedev said.

MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/: Russia's Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company and Serbia's airline Air Serbia are in talks on the possibility of supplying Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ 100) aircraft, First Deputy Head of the Russian Government Office Sergey Prikhodko told reporters ahead of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's official visit to Serbia.

MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/: The official death toll from the dam collapse in the Krasnoyarsk region rises to 15 people, press service of the Russian Emergencies Ministry's told TASS on Saturday.

A dam at a technological reservoir of a gold mining artel collapsed early on Saturday near the settlement of Schetinkino in the Krasnoyarsk region. Two temporary dormitories were flooded. The Russian Emergencies Ministry sent rescuers from neighboring regions to the site of the incident to assist in disaster relief efforts.

A criminal case has been opened.

MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/: Attempts to draw into NATO countries with internal political tensions are dangerous, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told Serbia's Vecernje novosti newspaper ahead of his official visit to Belgrade.

"You see, all attempts to draw into NATO countries that have internal political tensions are very dangerous," Medvedev said in response to a question on what Russia thinks about attempts to draw Bosnia and Herzegovina into the North Atlantic Alliance.

MOSCOW, October 18. /TASS/: Beijing hopes that joint work with Russia to create a missile attack warning system for China will yield good results, China’s ambassador in Moscow Zhang Hanhui told the media on Friday.

"We hope for good results. We are certain about them. This [system] will be defensive. It will guarantee our security and will not harm the security of other countries," he said.

Zhang added that cooperation between the two countries on this project was in the initial phase.

MOSCOW, October 18. /TASS/: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that he plans to discuss next steps on Syria at the upcoming meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin scheduled to be held in Sochi on October 22, Anadolu Agency reported on Friday.

"I view the upcoming meeting with Putin as the next stage in implementing steps on Syria," the news agency quotes the Turkish leader as saying.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier said that Putin and Erdogan would meet in Sochi on October 22 to discuss the situation in northeastern Syria.

ST. PETERSBURG, October 18. /TASS/: The Russian Defense Ministry has obtained exhaustive evidence the Arctic Ocean’s shelf belongs to Russia. The UN commission will consider them at a meeting in February, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said at a session of the Russian government’s Maritime Collegium in St. Petersburg on Friday.

MOSCOW, October 18. /TASS/: The Project 22350 first serial-produced frigate Admiral Kasatonov will fire cruise missiles during state trials in the White Sea, a source in the domestic defense industry told TASS on Friday.

"The stage of the ship’s state trials envisages the firings of cruise missiles," the source said.

The frigate earlier made a transit from the Baltic to the Northern Fleet, the source added.

MOSCOW, October 18. /TASS/: The US-Turkish agreement on suspending Ankara’s Operation Peace Spring in northeastern Syria reached at the talks between US Vice President Mike Pence and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday will not enable Washington to seize the initiative in the Syrian settlement, Head of the Center for the Near and Middle East at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies Vladimir Fitin told TASS.